Move to Amend Calls on Congress to Abolish Corporate Personhood

Move to Amend, the group responsible for popularizing the call to end corporate personhood and get big money out of politics, reiterated their call to Congress to pass an amendment that ends the Supreme Court created doctrine of corporate constitutional rights.

The call is in response to the hearing planned this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss "Examining a Constitutional Amendment to Restore Democracy to the American People."

"The only way to ensure democracy for the American People is to abolish the doctrine of corporate constitutional rights. Until the people can meaningfully regulate our government created entities, we can't say that we govern ourselves. Big money in politics is a part of the problem, but it isn't the underlying cause," stated Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, National Director of the Move to Amend Coalition.

The Democratic Party leadership has vowed to hold a Senate vote this year on Joint Resolution 19, a proposed Constitutional amendment that would grant Congress and the States authority to regulate campaign spending.

"SJR 19 is a good start, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Tens of thousands of volunteers across the nation have been building a grassroots movement over the past four years from the bottom up," said Sopoci-Belknap. "Our demand has been clear: End corporate personhood and money as speech. Anything less is a band-aid that won't solve the problem and stands the risk of diverting attention from the real solutions we need."

The Move to Amend Coalition is calling on co-sponsors of SJR 19 to amend the language to include corporate constitutional rights, or to introduce language similar to HJR 29 in the House that addresses both of the group's demands.

The Move to Amend coalition was formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Today, the coalition of nearly 350,000 people and hundreds of organizations has helped to pass nearly 600 resolutions in municipalities and local governments across the country calling on the state and federal governments to adopt their amendment.